Month: March 2025

Would you push the boat out and request a full steal dinner or play it safe and opt for a classic dish such as pizza or a burger?

For most of us it’s something that we’ll never have to think about, but for one man who spent over a decade working as a ‘Death Row chef’ encountering prisoner’s final requests wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

After being convicted for assaulting his ex-wife and kidnapping his brother-in-law in 1989, Brian Price would be incarcerated for 15 years at Texas Huntsville Prison.

He would soon find himself assigned to kitchen duty – a world away from his life as a musician and photographer on the outside – and, given that Texas is a state which still employs the death penalty, found himself occasionally cooking his inmates’ last requests.

This tradition existed in Texas up until 2011, with Price spending 11 of his years inside fulfilling his inmate’s last requests.

He would go on to prepare around 300 final meals and later record his experiences in his 2004 book Meals to Die For.

In his time cooking for the condemned, Price would only refuse to prepare one meal — due to personal reasons.

The declined request belonged to Leopoldo Narvaiz Jr., who was sentenced to death for stabbing his ex-girlfriend, her two sisters and brother to death in 1998.

Explaining his reasoning in a 2011 interview with The New York Times, Price explained that he had a connection to the victims – they were all friends of his daughters.

Narvaiz Jr was convicted of four counts of capital murder in 1998 and all four of his victims were aged between 11 and 19, so because of all this, Price handed the responsibility to someone else.

This would be the only man Price refused to cook for, recalling in other interviews how he once prepared a meal for a man who had shot another man dead in a grocery store robbery and received a thanks from the soon-to-be dying man via a police sergeant.

“That blew me away. I went back to my cell that night, and I really reflected upon it and that was probably the last thanks that guy gave anyone before he left this world,” he told the New York Times.

According to Discovery, several US states offer prisoners a meal of their choice prior to execution, with restrictions differing depending on the state they’ve been jailed in.

Responding to the ban, Price told KSAT: “We should not get rid of the last meal. Justice is going to be served when this person is executed, but can we not show our softer side? Our compassionate side?”

It was called a ‘Muslim ban’ back in Trump’s first term, as most countries on the list had majority Muslim populations, and it had to go through several iterations before the US Supreme Court would allow it through.

The ban was repealed in 2021 as one of the first things Joe Biden did upon succeeding Trump in the White House, but the New York Times has now reported that the second Trump administration is considering bringing back a travel ban for certain countries.

They report that there’s a drafted list with travel for citizens of 11 countries completely banned, a further 10 with strict restrictions, and 22 more that will face demands to act within 60 days or be banned.

The full list is still a draft and subject to change if a travel ban is made official, but this is what the New York Times says is currently the situation:

Draft list of countries with all travel banned

· Afghanistan

· Bhutan

· Cuba

· Iran

· Libya

· North Korea

· Somalia

· Sudan

· Syria

· Venezuela

· Yemen

Draft list of countries with visas strictly restricted

· Belarus

· Eritrea

· Haiti

· Laos

· Myanmar

· Pakistan

· Russia

· Sierra Leone

· South Sudan

· Turkmenistan

Draft list of countries with 60 days to address concerns

· Angola

· Antigua and Barbuda

· Benin

· Burkina Faso

· Cambodia

· Cameroon

· Cape Verde

· Chad

· Republic of Congo

· Democratic Republic of Congo

· Dominica

· Equatorial Guinea

· Gambia

· Liberia

· Malawi

· Mali

· Mauritania

· St. Kitts and Nevis

· St. Lucia

· São Tomé and Príncipe

· Vanuatu

· Zimbabwe

So, what could this actually mean for people trying to travel to the US?

If you’re from that first chunk of countries, the ‘red’ list, then you can kiss the chance of getting a visa to enter the US goodbye, there would be no travel for their citizens and no chance of entry.

People journeying to the US already need a visa to travel, and if there’s no chance of getting a visa then there’s no chance of being allowed into the country when you arrive.

The second list is made up of ‘orange’ countries where certain visas may be obtainable but others will not, with the New York Times suggesting immigrant and tourist visas may be banned for citizens of these 10 countries but wealthier people may still be able to get a business visa.

Trump has previously floated the possibility of a $5 million (£3.9 million) ‘gold card’ visa for people to buy permanent residency in the US.

Anyone on the ‘orange’ list trying to get a visa would have to attend an in-person interview and be vetted before they could be granted a visa, so entry under specific circumstances would be possible but the experience is likely to be a far more difficult and time consuming process.

The last time Trump imposed a travel ban some people from countries on the list had already stared their journey over to the US when it came into effect, meaning they were turned back when they arrived into the country.

A travel ban would not be about the country you travelled from but your own country of origin.

Meanwhile, countries on the ‘yellow’ list would be given a deadline of 60 days to fix problems the US believes them to have, otherwise they could be kicked onto a higher list.

Should this draft travel ban become a reality then citizens from certain countries would find it impossible to enter the US while others would have a significantly tougher time making it to America.

But if that’s what you’re doing for work, than things can be quite different.

And sure, some people might not be comfortable with their other half selling NSFW content, but plenty of OnlyFans creators rake in the cash from the stuff.

Layla Kelly even quit her corporate job for the adult industry, earning the title of New Zealand’s Best Porn Star in both 2023 and 2024.

While you might think any partner of someone with that kind of attention might struggle to be supportive or get quite jealous, she’s revealed what her husband of 19 years really thinks about it.

The bloke’s actually given Layla a year-long hall pass to sleep with as many men as she wants across the country this year – so that gives you a fair idea about him being ok with her work.

She said they thought this would be a ‘fun way’ to ‘spice up’ their marriage.

“In the past, we have experimented with extra people in the bedroom, this year we want to do that more regularly and share our experiences with our fans online,” she told DailyMail.com.

Now making $250,000 (£110,900) a year from sex work after about three to four years in the industry, Layla says it was her husband’s idea to start an account.

“I was on maternity leave and didn’t want to go back to my job in finance, he suggested starting OnlyFans or something similar since he knew I was already very comfortable in my own skin,” she explained.

He actually helps to edit her content and while they have filmed together, he just prefers to film and watch instead.

Layla added: “My husband enjoys watching me be pleasured, especially by random men, he gets pleasure from that so he is definitely not jealous but more excited!”

With their marriage valuing honesty and communication, the star described her husband as ‘fully supportive’.

And as she makes such a big bag of cash from the work, he doesn’t work ‘a regular job’ and the pair ‘do this together full time’.

Layla was asked if the pair have ever had any disagreements or arguments due to jealousy.

“We always discuss before we do anything new then make sure to have a de-brief afterwards,” she said.

“Sometimes you don’t know how you will feel until the deed has been done and chatting afterwards means that we can make sure that everyone is comfortable with the same thing happening again or discuss if we need to change anything.”

But his time at the business mascot has seen better days, with the clownish character not seen as much as he would like nowadays. And the reason for this is rather eerie.

Since first appearing back in the 1960s, old Ronald with his white face makeup and bright red hair has been a figure of modern pop culture that goes hand-in-hand with a post-war United States.

And with McDonald’s becoming one of the largest and most recognisable businesses in the world, he quickly became the poster boy for the fast food restaurant across the world.

Yep, believe it or not, once upon a time kids used to actually run towards the clownish creature in a yellow boiler suit and sinister smile.

Pals with Grimace and other creations such as the Hamburglar, these characters would inhabit the virtual world of McDonaldland and were often associated with the Happy Meal, which to this day is aimed at children.

And with toys in modern years replaced by books or other learning tools, they are one of the all-time great measures taken in the world of marketing.

He’s not been the omnipresent clown that he once was, though. Certainly not in the last decade.

Think back, and the last time you might have spotted him could have been just short of 10 years ago. Let’s say 2016.

We say that year in particular because that’s when the genuine phasing out of Ronald began.

He wasn’t to blame. Maccies hadn’t done anything wrong. Nope, it was in response to a rather disturbing social media trend (not you, Mannequin Challenge).

August 2016 was the time that the worrying trend of killer clowns sent the world into a frenzy for a short period of time. If you weren’t around for that, it was a worrying time where people dressed up as sinister-looking clowns and terrorised strangers.

From sharing photos of themselves looking creepy on to social media, it took a sinister turn with people dressing up as them near schools. Incidents were reported in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

The trend first started as a marketing stunt for a horror film that simply got out of hand through no fault of the marketing team itself.

It then got really serious when a family in Florida was attacked by a group of 20 people wearing clown masks. And in the UK, the Sun reported that one person in a clown mask allegedly pulled out a knife and started running after a boy on his way to school.

Overnight, the world’s attitude towards Ronald changed. Maccies released a statement at the time, which read: “McDonald’s and franchisees in the local markets are mindful of the current climate around clown sightings in communities and as such are being thoughtful in respect to Ronald McDonald’s participation in community events for the time being.”

A statement on the UK McDonald’s website also said: “We’re afraid that Ronald McDonald no longer appears in McDonald’s UK advertising, but he is still very busy working for us. He often travels up and down the country to help promote some of our exciting new activities and visits our restaurants to make sure everyone is enjoying their meals.”

From issuing World War III warnings to sending scathing messages to the ‘entire world’ as he hikes up tariffs, he’s also set to update restrictions on travel.

It’s reported the Trump administration is considering issuing a travel ban on citizens from a list of countries. An internal memo seen by Reuters lists over a whopping 40 countries split up into three separate groups.

While it is yet to be fully set and approved, this move would be pretty reminiscent of when the US president placed a ban on travellers from seven majority-Islamic nations during his first term in 2018.

He’s already started a crackdown on immigration since being sworn back into office, and this dramatic memo sees the likes of key allies of Moscow being placed under heavy sanctions.

The three separate groups of the list see the first set for a full ban on travelling into the US and the second would face partial suspensions impacting the likes of tourist and student visas as well as other immigrant visas.

And the third, biggest group, would be considered for a partial suspension if the countries’ governments don’t ‘make efforts to address deficiencies within 60 days’.

First reporting on the list, officials spoke anonymously to New York Times and cautioned that it had been developed by the State Department several weeks ago.

They added that changes were likely by the time it reached the White House.

Some of the countries on this draft list were already sanctioned by Trump in those travel bans made during his first term, but the majority of them are new

Draft list of countries with all travel banned

· Afghanistan

· Bhutan

· Cuba

· Iran

· Libya

· North Korea

· Somalia

· Sudan

· Syria

· Venezuela

· Yemen

Draft list of countries with visas strictly restricted

· Belarus

· Eritrea

· Haiti

· Laos

· Myanmar

· Pakistan

· Russia

· Sierra Leone

· South Sudan

· Turkmenistan

Draft list of countries with 60 days to address concerns

· Angola

· Antigua and Barbuda

· Benin

· Burkina Faso

· Cambodia

· Cameroon

· Cape Verde

· Chad

· Republic of Congo

· Democratic Republic of Congo

· Dominica

· Equatorial Guinea

· Gambia

· Liberia

· Malawi

· Mali

· Mauritania

· St. Kitts and Nevis

· St. Lucia

· São Tomé and Príncipe

· Vanuatu

· Zimbabwe

Citizens in the second group of countries would potentially be able to enter if they’re affluent business travellers but not those on immigrant or tourist visas. They may also be subjected to in-person interviews in order to get their visa.

A boom mic is that big fluffy one that looks like someone took the dearly departed family feline and stuck it on the end of a pole, and indeed among some it’s gained the nickname ‘dead cat’.

The US president glared at the person who’d been holding the giant fluffy microphone and then quipped that ‘she just became a big story tonight’.

He then continued to answer a few more questions before things wrapped up.

Beyond the amusement involved in the world’s most powerful man being biffed in the gob by a giant mass of fluff on a stick there were some people who seemed to be taking the whole thing altogether too seriously.

“Where’s the secret service,” some of Trump’s supporters asked online as to how a person could get so close to him and clonk him with a large object.

Others wondered whether it could class as ‘assault on the president’, while some in the nether regions of social media cooked up a conspiracy that the boom mic might have been ‘laced with a poison’ or ‘infected with the next pandemic’.

They said that the ‘mic needs to be tested for all agents’ and suggested what sort of substances might be smeared on the recording equipment, with some of the more outlandish suggestions including ‘fentanyl, anthrax, herpes’.

One person called for the reporter’s crew to be ‘arrested and all equipment seized and tested for biological weapons or poisons’, claiming that ‘this should be treated as an assassination attempt’.

Meanwhile, besides being clonked in the face by microphones Trump has been busy threatening to take Greenland once again despite them not wanting to be occupied by the US.

Trump also keeps talking about making Canada ‘our cherished 51st state’ against their wishes, and NBC reports that the US president has asked the military to come up with options for occupying the Panama Canal.

He’s also been throwing out more tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China, the UK and the EU as he seems intent on starting a trade war with friends, neighbours and rivals alike.

Trump has also been ordered to rehire scores of workers who had been laid off as part of the cost cutting agenda he and Elon Musk had pursued.

A wayward boom mic seems like the least of people’s worries right now.

The 78-year-old alluded towards efforts to reach peace between Russia and Ukraine, highlighting the importance of the situation not just to America, but the entire world.

Earlier this week, the US leader suggested the two European nations agree to a 30-day ceasefire, which Ukraine accepted, but Russian President Vladimir Putin swiftly rejected.

He later followed up and said that he ‘absolutely supports’ the idea, though certain criteria would need to be met.

Trump is determined to strike a deal for peace between the countries, despite his public outburst at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a meeting at the Oval Office last month.

Yesterday (14 March), the president became the first leader since Obama to speak to the Justice Department, and he took the opportunity to highlight the risks of World War III, warning it would be ‘a war like no other’.

He claimed the nation is ‘in pretty good shape’ to reach a peace deal with Russia, and stated that its leader has ‘respect’ for the US.

Trump stated: “I think we’re doing well with Russia, we’re speaking with President Putin, we want to get the war over.”

The president further claimed that the US ‘sent nearly $350 billion to Europe’ in military aid, adding: “We’ve had some very good calls today with Russia, and with Ukraine, they’ve agreed to a ceasefire if we can get it with Russia. And it’s not easy. It’s a tough one.”

“I think we have it, I think we have it, but this could lead to World War III, very easily, could very easily lead to World War III. But I think we’re in pretty good shape, a lot better than where we were before we got involved,” Trump said.

“That was heading into World War III territory, that would’ve been a war like no other because of nuclear weapons, and other types of weapons that you don’t even wanna know about.”

Trump also claimed that ‘there would have been no war had I been president. It just 100 percent would not have happened.’

US envoy Steve Witkoff has presented plans of a ceasefire to Putin in a meeting on Thursday, with a phone call between the two leaders set to take place in the coming days.

G7 allies, including the UK, stated on Friday that they were calling for a ceasefire with ‘no conditions’ to end the battle in Ukraine.

Putin has previously said in a televised statement: “We are sympathetic to President Trump’s call.

“If they lay down their arms and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and dignified treatment.”

The former-KGB operative went on: “In order to effectively implement the US president’s call, (there needs to be) a corresponding order from Ukraine’s military-political leadership to its military to lay down their arms and surrender.”

Trump had announced in a social media post about Ukrainian soldiers that were ‘completely surroundeded’ in Kursk.

“I have strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared. This would be a horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II,” he stated.

Cameron Callaghan was flying with Etihad Airways from Manchester to Bangkok via Abu Dhabi in January when he became unwell.

The former delivery driver had eaten an egg sandwich three hours before the plane and was served a pasta meal after take-off. The ‘flight from hell’ had been delayed for five hours and the man reckons the food hadn’t been stored properly during that time.

“When we finally got on, they offered us some food so I ate that and put a movie on. It was a tomato, cheesy, chicken pasta,” Cameron explained.

“It did smell a bit weird but all plane food kind of does.”

Etihad Airways insist they ‘prepared and stored the food under strict temperature-controlled conditions’ and no other passengers who had the same food reported issues.

But he says about 20 minutes later he had ‘diarrhoea twice’ and then was just ‘constantly throwing up for the duration of the flight’.

The Bolton lad continued: “I threw up probably about 30 times. I had to sit at the back of the plane with an air hostess while she kept the toilet free for me.

“I was going to the toilet every five minutes, laying in the foetal position and towards the end of the flight, I’d emptied my body so much that I couldn’t even stand up.”

Cameron claims that by the time they landed at Zayed International Airport, Abu Dhabi, he was so dehydrated he couldn’t even life his head up.

“So they had to get a wheelchair and they wheeled me to the medical room in Abu Dhabi’s airport,” he added.

He’s sure the egg butty beforehand ‘definitely wasn’t the cause’ as was sat in the airport for three hours after it and ‘felt completely fine’.

“I didn’t even eat the night before because I was stressed because of the delayed flight,” the traveller said.

A doctor at the airport assessed him and gave him an IV and anti-sickness drip, with the incident leaving him feeling ‘so weak’ at the start of his holiday.

“The next two or three days after arriving in Bangkok I was just bedbound,” Cameron said. “It was only on the third day I actually left the hotel and started exploring.”

Sure he wouldn’t have been sick so soon after eating the pasta ‘if it didn’t come from their food’, the man wants a refund for the flight from Eithad Airways.

“I want acknowledgement about the food poisoning and for them to say sorry,” he said, adding the claim: “They’ve not taken the food poisoning seriously, they’ve not taken the proper precautions. It’s unprofessional how they’ve handled everything.”

Cameron says it was ‘embarrassing’ on the flight and ‘ruined the first few days’ of the holiday he has planned for the last three years.

Now, he says he’ll ‘starve myself’ on the flight back so it doesn’t happen again.

An Etihad Airways spokesperson said: “We are aware of the recent report of a passenger falling ill on board our flight from Manchester on 06 January, 2025.

“We take all such matters very seriously and investigate thoroughly.

“Our food on this flight, as with all our flights, was prepared and stored under strict temperature-controlled conditions to ensure safety and quality.

“We did not receive any reports of illness from other passengers on this flight who were served the same meal. Our first priority is always the safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew.”

Taking to social media, the financial journalist said there had been a ‘huge announcement’ by the Financial Conduct Authority when it came to the selling of car finance in the United Kingdom before 2021.

The FCA has for some time now been investigating the mis-selling of car finance between the years of 2007 and 2021, with hidden fees placed on agreements that consumers did not know about when signing off at the dealership.

Applicable to both personal contract purchase (PCP) or hire purchase (HP) deals, these fees – known as discretionary commission arrangements (DCAs) – applied to cars, vans, motorbikes, and even camper vans.

FCA car finance investigation latest

The FCA has given finance companies until 4 December, 2025 to respond to complaints, meaning there is still plenty of time to get your complaint in if you bought a car on PCP or HP during the qualifying period.

Previously, it had said that after May 2025, a decision will be made on how compensation may be given to consumers who have valid claims.

How much money could you get? Well, previous data from the FCA said that car buyers paid £1,100 more interest on a typical £10,000 four-year car finance deal. Take that as a good starting point to try and gauge what you could be owed.

The situation has now changed, though, as Lewis has pointed out.

You won’t need to complain directly

In a new explainer to the UK public, Lewis said explained how the FCA will now introduce an industry-wide ‘redress scheme’ if payments are confirmed (something Lewis is incredibly sure about).

Critically, it means that people aren’t going to have to put complaints in to get money.

“The regulator is going to tell lenders, ‘find everybody who was mis-sold under the criteria we give you, and then pay them out based on a formula that we’re going to give you’,” Lewis said in a video on TikTok.

“So it’s going to be masses more people… because it’s going to be proactive, rather than people having to complain.”

Don’t lose out on the full amount

As Lewis explains, some firms have said they will handle your complaint for you. And that’s for a fee, usually 25 percent of the final settlement figure you’re given.

Time to nip that in the bud, Lewis says, explaining: “It’s very likely, if a payout is going to come, you’re going to get that money automatically.”

More than two million complaints were lodged with car finance companies via Lewis’ free form he produced over on the Money Saving Expert website.

All in all, he reckons the final sum could be ‘tens of billions of pounds’ under a redress scheme similar to what was seen in the PPI scandal.

Technical issues on their Boeing Starliner spacecraft prevented them from returning after stepping aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in June 2024.

Ever since, a return date for their return has been up in the air, and delayed numerous times.

There was hope this week, as a potential launch date was set for 12 March by NASA and SpaceX, who have been working on the Crew-10 mission, though this has been delayed due to a hydraulic fault.

It could still launch this evening (14 March) with four astronauts on board, with a potential return for Wilmore and Williams on Monday (17 March).

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have been working to get the pair back down to Earth, but even their extended stay in space doesn’t come close to what NASA astronaut Frank Rubio experienced in 2023, after spending 371 days in space, setting an American record.

After more than a year in space, he set foot on Earth on 27 September, 2023, and went through several bodily changes as he readjusted to life with climate and gravity.

Rubio’s mission was intended to be six months long, but as his time was more than doubled, we got to find out the effects of living gravity-free for an extended period of time.

While the vast majority of humans will never get the opportunity to visit space, this might be the closest we can get.

So, what are these effects, and how many of these might apply to Wilmore and Williams?

The lack of gravity causes a decrease in muscle mass and even bone loss within just the first couple months of a mission – let alone the year Rubio spent up there.

At the time of the NASA astronaut’s landing, Dr Jennifer Fogarty, chief scientific officer at Baylor College of Medicine’s Translational Research Institute for Space Health, told ABC News: “How do you coordinate movement like walking, which you haven’t done for a long period of time, and then the idea of balance?

“When you put those two together, it can kind of create a little bit of a precarious situation and something that’s very well-monitored with the crew members when they land on Earth.”

The expert also added that the longer the time in space goes on for, the longer the time it takes for the astronaut to reacclimatise when they get back.

So while Wilmore and Williams may take some time to get back to normal, it will be nowhere as extreme as Rubio’s experience.

Also, when living in space, an astronaut’s blood flow can be heavily affected.

This can cause symptoms including blurred vision or eye swelling due to something known as Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome.

According to the co-director of the Center for Aerospace Physiology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Dr Michael Decker, our veins have handy-dandy valves in them to make sure ‘blood doesn’t flow backwards when we stand up’.

And being enclosed in a weightless room for a long period of time will certainly impact the body’s blood flow.

He added: “Some of this increased intracranial pressure can actually impact the eye and lead to visual impairment.

“Sometimes when astronauts land, that visual impairment does not necessarily resolve.”